Small Islands – Large climate change challenges. Household resilience to climate change vulnerabilities - a case study of Bonaire

Main Findings

The main climate change vulnerabilities for Bonaire are: an increase in the intensity of hurricanes and tropical storms, an increase in the number and extent of flood events, and an increase in the occurrence of extreme weather

• These impact Bonaire’s natural systems (e.g., destruction of coastal and marine ecosystems and terrestrial environments) and socio-economic systems (e.g., health, income, and food availability) – and thus negatively impact households.

• The average score of the household sample indicates that HCR in Bonaire is not particularly low, but also not high.

• Especially the following drivers of household climate resilience seem to be limited in Bonaire: expected damage to homes, amount of savings, insurance covering damage from climate change (vulnerabilities), dependent income sources, incomes, vulnerable neighbourhoods, alternatives to electricity, water, and food, social resilience, community response, government response, awareness of climate change, information and education on climate change impacts and steps to prepare for this, and steps taken to prepare for this.

• The following households are less inclined to be climate resilient: (possibly) bigger households, households with high kid ratios, households with younger household heads, (possibly) households speaking fewer languages, households not fluently speaking English, and households with a higher level of obtained education.

Recommendations

• Create an action plan in which policy directly aimed at increasing (household) climate resilience is formulated. This should at least include policy to:

>Keep investing in the protection and recovery of Bonaire’s nature

>Create awareness >Increase the availability of insurance covering damage from climate change (vulnerabilities)

>Provide financial assistance to help households prepare for climate change (vulnerabilities)

>Provide income generating opportunities and diversify the economy.

• Incorporate climate change (resiliency) in the design of policy on other themes.

• Increase cooperation• Involve the local community

• Conduct additional research

For more information, please contact Nina Zander nina.p.zander@gmail.com.

Please also see:

Nina Zander's Masters Thesis https://www.dcbd.nl/document/household-resilience-climate-change-vulnera...
Raw data set https://www.dcbd.nl/document/household-resilience-climate-change-vulnera...